Evolutionary rescue in a changing world

Carlson, Stephanie M.; Cunningham, Curry J.; Westley, Peter A. H.

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2014.06.005

Cited by 533 publications

(673 citation statements)

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“…If standing genetic variation and mutation alone provide limited adaptive capacity, rarity and isolation may contribute to increased risk of species’ extirpation (Frankham, 1998; Tallmon et al., 2004). In these scenarios, genetic or evolutionary rescue via managed introduction of genetic variation between populations may be required to conserve evolutionary potential of a species (Carlson, Cunningham, & Westley, 2014; Hamilton & Miller, 2016; Miller & Hamilton, 2016; Rius & Darling, 2014). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One of the reasons for this is that maintenance of species’ evolutionary potential via genetic rescue may have opposing effects in species of conservation concern (Kovach, Luikart, Lowe, Boyer, & Muhlfeld, 2016; Miller & Hamilton, 2016). On the one hand, the introduction of novel variation may limit demographic and genetic consequences of limited population size, providing the necessary variation to adapt to changing conditions (Carlson et al., 2014; Hufbauer et al., 2016). In their review of empirical studies of the effect of genetic rescue, Tallmon et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Genetic conservation and management of the California endemic, Torrey pine (Pinus torreyanaParry): Implications of genetic rescue in a genetically depauperate species

Hamilton

Royauté

Wright

et al. 2017

Ecology and Evolution

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Rare species present a challenge under changing environmental conditions as the genetic consequences of rarity may limit species ability to adapt to environmental change. To evaluate the evolutionary potential of a rare species, we assessed variation in traits important to plant fitness using multigenerational common garden experiments. Torrey pine, Pinus torreyana Parry, is one of the rarest pines in the world, restricted to one mainland and one island population. Morphological differentiation between island and mainland populations suggests adaptation to local environments may have contributed to trait variation. The distribution of phenotypic variances within the common garden suggests distinct population‐specific growth trajectories underlay genetic differences, with the island population exhibiting substantially reduced genetic variance for growth relative to the mainland population. Furthermore, F1 hybrids, representing a cross between mainland and island trees, exhibit increased height accumulation and fecundity relative to mainland and island parents. This may indicate genetic rescue via intraspecific hybridization could provide the necessary genetic variation to persist in environments modified as a result of climate change. Long‐term common garden experiments, such as these, provide invaluable resources to assess the distribution of genetic variance that may inform conservation strategies to preserve evolutionary potential of rare species, including genetic rescue.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic conservation and management of the California endemic, Torrey pine (Pinus torreyanaParry): Implications of genetic rescue in a genetically depauperate species

Hamilton

Royauté

Wright

et al. 2017

Ecology and Evolution

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“…The term "demographic rescue" refers to increases in numbers of individuals that buffer a population against stochastic fluctuations and reduce Allee effects, which are processes that small populations often face (3,9,10). A larger population size may also have long-term effects on population fitness.…”

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confidence: 99%

Three types of rescue can avert extinction in a changing environment

Hufbauer

Szűcs

Kasyon

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

158

189

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Setting aside high-quality large areas of habitat to protect threatened populations is becoming increasingly difficult as humans fragment and degrade the environment. Biologists and managers therefore must determine the best way to shepherd small populations through the dual challenges of reductions in both the number of individuals and genetic variability. By bringing in additional individuals, threatened populations can be increased in size (demographic rescue) or provided with variation to facilitate adaptation and reduce inbreeding (genetic rescue). The relative strengths of demographic and genetic rescue for reducing extinction and increasing growth of threatened populations are untested, and which type of rescue is effective may vary with population size. Using the flour beetle (Tribolium castaneum) in a microcosm experiment, we disentangled the genetic and demographic components of rescue, and compared them with adaptation from standing genetic variation (evolutionary rescue in the strictest sense) using 244 experimental populations founded at either a smaller (50 individuals) or larger (150 individuals) size. Both types of rescue reduced extinction, and those effects were additive. Over the course of six generations, genetic rescue increased population sizes and intrinsic fitness substantially. Both large and small populations showed evidence of being able to adapt from standing genetic variation. Our results support the practice of genetic rescue in facilitating adaptation and reducing inbreeding depression, and suggest that demographic rescue alone may suffice in larger populations even if only moderately inbred individuals are available for addition.genetic rescue | extinction | migration | evolutionary rescue | adaptation H uman activities, climate change, and habitat loss are putting thousands of species at risk for extinction (1). Traditional conservation approaches that concentrate on improving habitat quality and size are becoming challenging to implement as human populations expand and degrade natural resources at an ever increasing rate. Thus, conservation efforts that are constrained by the availability of habitat may instead need to focus on improving a species' prospect of survival by maintaining sufficient population sizes and supporting the ability of populations to adapt to changing conditions. The most successful approaches are likely to be eco-evolutionary in focus, and thus aim to manipulate evolutionary processes such as inbreeding and the potential for adaptation, to influence ecological dynamics and, ultimately, population persistence.Eco-evolutionary approaches often rely on facilitating movement of individuals among small, threatened populations (2). Brown and Kodric-Brown (3) showed theoretically that immigration in natural systems can save small populations from extinction and referred to this process as the "rescue effect." This phenomenon has since been well documented (4-8), and human-facilitated immigration has been used to rescue populations threatened by degraded habitat o...

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“…The decline in genetic diversity in populations R1-R3 as observed in this study is an important warning, as the reintroductions in these areas were performed by releasing individuals from the NL breeding line only, having already a lower genetic diversity compared with other breeding lines. Even a small decline in genetic diversity may affect population persistence of R1-R3 in the long term as a lowered genetic diversity is associated with endangered and failing populations (Madsen et al 1999;Westemeier et al 1998;Carlson et al 2014;Whiteley et al 2015), although habitat quality and habitat management often plays a more dominant role in population persistence (Spielman et al 2004;Bouzat et al 2009;La Haye et al 2014).The populations of R4-R5 were established by releasing individuals of two breeding lines (NL and G/NL). This strategy was followed to maximize levels of genetic diversity in the new populations.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite these disadvantages, reintroduction has become an important and frequently applied strategy for the conservation of a broad variety of mammals, ranging from small mammals (Ottewell et al 2014;McCleery et al 2014) till large carnivores (Hayward et al 2007). Unfortunately, the overall success of reintroductions is low (Fischer and Lindenmayer 2000;Tenhumberg et al 2004;Armstrong and Seddon 2008) and several authors (Robert 2009;Weeks et al 2011) have stressed the need of giving attention to the genetic adaptive potential of reintroduced populations (Carlson et al 2014;Jamieson 2015) as a low genetic adaptive potential may hamper a successful recovery of the species (Madsen et al 1999;Westemeier et al 1998;Carlson et al 2014;Whiteley et al 2015). By implementing a systematic genetic monitoring, which we define as 'quantifying temporal changes in population genetic metrics' (following Schwartz et al 2007), when starting a reintroduction project, very important information of both the genetic status of the population and population demographic parameters can be gained, while the results of such a monitoring can be used to optimize conservation actions (Schwartz et al 2007).…”

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confidence: 99%

Genetic monitoring to evaluate reintroduction attempts of a highly endangered rodent

Haye

Reiners

Raedts³

et al. 2017

Conserv Genet

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a systematic reintroduction scheme including consecutive supplementations made it possible to infer success of reintroduction, supplementation and following admixture of populations. An initial loss of genetic diversity could be detected in some of the reintroduced populations, but it could be shown that due to following supplementation of populations, genetic diversity and also effective population size in the wild stabilized or even increased. Multivariate (DAPC) and Bayesian inference (STRUCTURE) revealed admixture of supplemented individuals with wild-born individuals. Although population size estimates differed strongly between populations, a link between census size, breeding lines, effective population size and genetic diversity could not be proven. This study highlights that genetic monitoring is not only descriptive but also reveals detailed information on reintroduction success, admixture and population development. We recommend that genetic monitoring should be a basic element of reintroductions and should be used to optimize reintroduction attempts.Keywords Captive breeding · Common hamster · Founder effect · Admixture · Genetic variation · Effective and census population size IntroductionThe current global biodiversity crisis affects many groups of species, including a wide range of mammalian species (Di Marco et al. 2014). A global conservation strategy for mammalian species is therefore urgently needed (Rondinini et al. 2011), but the success of conservation strategies is uncertain as many factors influence the result of conservation projects (Crees et al. 2016). The ultimate strategy to prevent extinction or to increase population Abstract The ultimate strategy to prevent species extinction is captive breeding followed by reintroduction of individuals into the wild. Unfortunately, overall success of reintroductions is poor and in most cases conservation breeding is applied for species where individual numbers, population numbers and genetic diversity is strongly reduced. In addition, reintroductions inevitably result in small populations with poor genetic status. Systematic demographic and genetic monitoring is needed to optimize conservation actions. Here we show how genetic monitoring was useful and informative in a reintroduction project for the highly endangered Common hamster (Cricetus cricetus) in the Netherlands and Belgium. Using well defined breeding lines of original relict populations combined with M. J. J. La Haye and T. E. Reiners have contributed equally to this work. numbers of mammalian species is captive breeding followed by reintroduction of captive-bred individuals into the wild (IUCN 2013). However, captive breeding and reintroduction have severe disadvantages. Reintroductions can be difficult and expensive (Tenhumberg et al. 2004), and the release of captive-bred individuals is often accompanied by high initial losses of released individuals (Villemey et al. 2013;McCleery et al. 2014). Moreover, captive breeding is mostly started in species with already highly threatened popu...

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Evolutionary rescue in a changing world

Cited by 533 publications

References 79 publications

Genetic conservation and management of the California endemic, Torrey pine (Pinus torreyanaParry): Implications of genetic rescue in a genetically depauperate species

Genetic conservation and management of the California endemic, Torrey pine (Pinus torreyanaParry): Implications of genetic rescue in a genetically depauperate species

Three types of rescue can avert extinction in a changing environment

Genetic monitoring to evaluate reintroduction attempts of a highly endangered rodent

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